SEOUL, March 8 (Xinhua/APP): South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday designated two more cities on the east coast as special disaster zones for a wildfire that had lasted for five days.
Presidential spokesperson Park Kyung-mee said in a statement that Moon designated Gangneung and Donghae as special disaster zones to provide government support in recovery work and relief funds for the eastern coastal cities suffering from expanded damage from the wildfire.
Two days earlier, Moon declared Uljin, a city about 330 km southeast of Seoul where the fire started Friday morning, and its neighboring Samcheok as special disaster zones.
The blaze continued for five days, burning an estimated 21,772 hectares of woodland along the east coast, according to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters.
The damaged areas included 16,913 hectares in Uljin, 772 hectares in Samcheok, 1,900 hectares in Gangneung and 2,100 hectares in Donghae.
No casualties have been reported, but about 570 facilities and homes were damaged, with hundreds of people displaced.
The fire extinguishment rate reached 90 percent in Gangneung and Donghae, and 50 percent in Uljin and Samcheok.
Thousands of firefighters as well as tens of helicopters were sent to battle the blaze, but they had difficulty containing the fire due to high winds, dry weather and heavy smoke.
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